Just wondering. What is the best way to improve the air flow into my engine to improve power? I have never used a K&N air filter before, but I have heard bad things about magna's and universal filters.

clean standard paper filter with the standard intake for a standard or mildly modified magna

Take out your left headlight and put in a huge ram air intake :)

clean standard paper filter with the standard intake for a standard or mildly modified magna

This^

The standard intake is fine.

If you wanted to actually improve it, it's be quite a job. Having an exhaust place make up a 3" mandrel CAI might work, but costs would outweigh the benefits.

The RPW CAI does nothing but sound (guessing this has something to do with harsh bends).

The factory intake is very well engineered, so I wouldn't bother.

i took the part that's stretch out to the grill off, the plastic bit im also using a K&N panel filter

Ok, I will clean mine up. So the verdict is, no aftermarket filter?

Ok, I will clean mine up. So the verdict is, no aftermarket filter?

Nope, save your money. There are quite a few modified Magnas that are using the stock intake and filter with no issues.

The only benefit of the K&N is that it is re-usable.

Not quite.

Fiitted with a K & N my TE growls on acceleration, whereas previously it sounded like a revving sewing machine. Even though there may be no noticable increase in power or torque, it does sound better.

K&N will eventually soak your intake in oil, including your MAF sensor. THis is why they are rubbish on a Magna. Add to this, with a paper filter, it filters dust and a lot of the dust will fall to the bottom of the airbox. With the K&N the dust sticks to the filter thus it will block faster. The airflow through an oiled filter is also not as good as through that of a good quality paper filter

There is really nothing you can or need to do with the intake unless you are boosting or going for big power. Some cars do benefit but magna's were well designed

Taking off the plastic sheild near the grille will only give you hot air at lower speeds from the condensor and the radiator thus why Mitsubishi put that bit of plastic there in the first place

Personally if I have a choice over power and growl, I will take power. You can listen to your growl as you watch my tail lights dissapear in the distance lol

On the later model JDM cars they actually cut slots into the plastic cover behind the grill so the intake could draw from the front grill (from factory) im waiting for one to turn up at pic a part to put it on, i have cut that plastic away in the mean time. as soon as the car is moving that area is in cold airflow. good enough for factory, good enough for me! i also cut the rubber at the front of the bonnet directly infront of the snorkle. Im certain the ADM cars didnt get the slots as more dust is likely to be sucked in, and you guys have drier conditions.

The only problem i see with factory intake is that its restricted at the end of the snorkel by rubber trim of the bonnet. Obvious way to modify the intake would be to take the snorkel out and run a duct from the air box straight down past the gear box and place it right in front of passenger wheel. One minus is you will suck in more dirt that way

I've removed the intake snorkel - it makes NO difference to my power or fuel economy.
It does increase induction and exhaust noise though and since I like a little bit of noise, I've left it off.

I also trimmed / ground away some of the 'spines' and sharp edges just inside the air box. This appears to have given me a fuel economy improvement, so I do think there are some restrictions in the factory intake that can be improved upon.

Some people will say that the manufacturer spends many many thousands to "tune" and set this up in the best way possible. But I think the manufacturer has to make a car meet the requirements of government regulations and the 60 year old Mrs Smith to be able to drive it to church on Sunday. Sometimes, the boy racer approach has to be a little better.
eg: We all know that a factory muffler on the Executive Magna's is restrictive and that putting a Sports or straight through muffler alone can free up something like 7kW. Similarly, I'm sure that if you start hearing induction noise, you've probably freed up an extra 1 or 2kW.

That's my 2c and opinion. I've done 1/4 mile timings with and without snorkel - no difference. I've done 1000km of driving after trimming my air box a little (no snorkel) and my fuel economy improved from 15L/100km to 14L/100km - it was really bad in the first place so may be it runs rich and getting more air in helped it - I think more air probably won't help economy on a well tuned car.

It's good to hear you can release a couple of kw by doing simple.

I've removed the intake snorkel - it makes NO difference to my power or fuel economy.
It does increase induction and exhaust noise though and since I like a little bit of noise, I've left it off.

I also trimmed / ground away some of the 'spines' and sharp edges just inside the air box. This appears to have given me a fuel economy improvement, so I do think there are some restrictions in the factory intake that can be improved upon.

Some people will say that the manufacturer spends many many thousands to "tune" and set this up in the best way possible. But I think the manufacturer has to make a car meet the requirements of government regulations and the 60 year old Mrs Smith to be able to drive it to church on Sunday. Sometimes, the boy racer approach has to be a little better.
eg: We all know that a factory muffler on the Executive Magna's is restrictive and that putting a Sports or straight through muffler alone can free up something like 7kW. Similarly, I'm sure that if you start hearing induction noise, you've probably freed up an extra 1 or 2kW.

That's my 2c and opinion. I've done 1/4 mile timings with and without snorkel - no difference. I've done 1000km of driving after trimming my air box a little (no snorkel) and my fuel economy improved from 15L/100km to 14L/100km - it was really bad in the first place so may be it runs rich and getting more air in helped it - I think more air probably won't help economy on a well tuned car.

Egads man! I'm not sure about the 7kw gain when replacing the rear muffler. Maybe 3-4 horses, not a full 7kw.

I do however agree with the intake snorkle finding, as I've found that aswell. I removed it off my brothers TH and he said that his fuel econ has slightly improved, same measured on my car. Do I think that sucking in under bonnet air is better than outside air? No way, but somehow it just doesn't add up.

Now, a quick word on the intake resonators. They seem to be just that, resonators to stop noise. The resonators themselves start disappearing once you look at the later model cars, not because of air intake design but to save MONEY (came from someone in Mitsi).

I think you're mistakening the feel of extra power as the extra noise, the engine might have more throttle response with the resonators removed due to less air hanging around after the MAF. The less air there is there the more responsive it can be. Under load however it's the same power, just quicker to respond when you want it to.

Is the stock system good? Hell yes. Do I like my cars loud? Hellz yes! So I take my resonators off.. easy done

blah /end rant

Hot air is less dense, if your o2 sensor and ecu is working it will inject less fuel to get the right mix as there are less oxygen molecules per given volume to combust with the fuel.
Since there is less bang, there will be less power though.

Egads man! I'm not sure about the 7kw gain when replacing the rear muffler. Maybe 3-4 horses, not a full 7kw.

stock TJ 3.5 = 155kW? TJ VRX = 163kW? pretty sure the only difference is the rear muffler?

stock TJ 3.5 = 155kW? TJ VRX = 163kW? pretty sure the only difference is the rear muffler?

That's what Mitsubishi say. I don't believe everything I see on paper I guess.

I had nothing but problems after 12000kms with a K&N My AFM stopped reading correctly and kept turning on the CEL so i went and bought a AFM Cleaner and Paper filter and didnt have any probs after that

I had nothing but problems after 12000kms with a K&N My AFM stopped reading correctly and kept turning on the CEL so i went and bought a AFM Cleaner and Paper filter and didnt have any probs after that

You properly used way to much oil.

I never had a problem with my k&n but there is a fine line between enough oil and too much.
The reason i went back to stock filter was the almost 2kw gain by swapping back to the stock filter. (dyno proven). The k&n has a thick rubber edge which decreases the surface that air can be sucked through, Also through pleats that are alot smaller in the k&n giving it less surface area.
I can't prove this surface area finding as being the cause but i stand by it.

I had nothing but problems after 12000kms with a K&N My AFM stopped reading correctly and kept turning on the CEL so i went and bought a AFM Cleaner and Paper filter and didnt have any probs after that


You properly used way to much oil.

I never had a problem with my k&n but there is a fine line between enough oil and too much.
The reason i went back to stock filter was the almost 2kw gain by swapping back to the stock filter. (dyno proven). The k&n has a thick rubber edge which decreases the surface that air can be sucked through, Also through pleats that are alot smaller in the k&n giving it less surface area.
I can't prove this surface area finding as being the cause but i stand by it.

Agreed. Too much oil when "recharging" your K&N filter will screw you MAF. I've always had a K&N in my TF and never had any problems, had it for about 4 years and have done 2-3 cleans during that period.

Cool!

How about if you drive up to Tarcutta and test out with me who is looking at whose tail lights?

uh ho, how much oil is too much? just recharged mine.... i think i did 2 sprays on each side?

Thoughts? Slightly off topic but could be something.

What if i made a mold of the air box half of the standard snorkel so it still hooks up fine to the airbox but enlarge the mouth in width by 100%?? (With fiberglass of course)

That would be increasing airflow, without stuffing around with the filter or how it hooks up.

uh ho, how much oil is too much? just recharged mine.... i think i did 2 sprays on each side?

Two short light sprays should be OK, but if they were long and/or heavy sprays then you could be in trouble.

Easilly fixed though, clean both the filter and the MAF sensor to remove all the oil and start again.

Use electrical contact cleaner or MAF sensor cleaner for the MAF, and ordinary dishwashing liquid works for me to clean the filter. Just give it three goes in a sink, rinse between each go, then make sure it's thoroughly dry before you re-oil it.

ah sweet i didn't too massively long sprays, enough to make sure it was all covered, but not dripping off! (instructions said to make sure there were no white spots left)

cheers for the advice, the car probably wont be driven for another week or 2 so just in case i did use too much, the oil should have plenty of time to absorb by then

Check before you start it next......if its over oiled you'll find it pooling along the bottom of the filter.

As for factory versus mods I think everybody needs to remember that the process of designing and building something that is mass produced starts wit the "best of everything" then gets whittled away. First by costs then by regulations and laws. The bean counters get their say after the engineers have a good idea. For all we know the original prototype was super effective but cost too much to build, or would affect future costs of maintaining the vehicle. Maybe the overall costs of materials, or the costs to manufacture the parts was too much. This will go on during a design process for a long time, back and forward until everybody is happy. In todays day and age it will go on until the bean counters are happy with their profit margin.

I work in an industry where we can have a million good ideas, but costs and practicality govern which of those good ideas actually makes it out the door.

What I'm saying is; factory is good enough. Good enough as in it will score averagely across all counts; costs, practicality, longevity/reliability and performance. But its not "the best", its a balance. You can design your own, or modify all you want, but you end up with something that will sacrifice that balance. Its personal preference which of the characteristics you want to do away with.

I'm all for modifying any part of a car - its personal preference - using a K&N over a standard filter is the same as using angel eyes over standard headlights; its what YOU want to do to YOUR car. Making an informed decision is good, but when you launch your research make sure you get a balance of information. Take two versions of the story, add them together and divide by two - its the closest you'll get to an anecdotal truth without a whole lot of R&D of your own.

FYI - Used a K&N before; good throttle response, MAYBE some extra puff at high revs... but only ONLY while the MAF and filter were clean. The costs of maintaining a K&N dont start and stop at a recharger kit. You need to include the countless cans of contact cleaner and throttle body cleaner that you will use cleaning up after the K&N. If you feel the extra is worth the costs then go for it.

stock TJ 3.5 = 155kW? TJ VRX = 163kW? pretty sure the only difference is the rear muffler?

I thought that the cams and ecu tune were slightly different as well as the muffler?

I doubt the Cams are different between the executive and sports/vrx models (that would raise costs too much).

The ECU tune could be different cost effectively, but I've seen people voice both opinions here. I'm pretty sure someone has also downloaded and compared the tunes between exec and Sports/VRX models and found no difference, but that's a bit of a guess/heresy at the moment. :)

I wonder what the price difference between mutiple paper vs 1 K&N plus ongoing supply cost?

I thought that the cams and ecu tune were slightly different as well as the muffler?

In Series 1 of TJ, Sports/VRX had 163kW and normal Magnas got 150kW and the difference were cams and tune.
In Series 2, all had the same cams so the difference was only in the tune.

Again, in the beginning, the 3.5 only had 147kw in the KE Veradas and then got a cam revision to make it more rev happy and boosted the power to 150kW in the KH and KJ Series 1.

In Series 1 of TJ, Sports/VRX had 163kW and normal Magnas got 150kW and the difference were cams and tune.
In Series 2, all had the same cams so the difference was only in the tune.

Again, in the beginning, the 3.5 only had 147kw in the KE Veradas and then got a cam revision to make it more rev happy and boosted the power to 150kW in the KH and KJ Series 1.

Looking at the various ROMs reveals that the 3.5l fuel and ignition timing maps weren't changed from the TH to the TW (excepting the Ralliart of course). :hmm:

Looking at the various ROMs reveals that the 3.5l fuel and ignition timing maps weren't changed from the TH to the TW (excepting the Ralliart of course). :hmm:
That is not what I found out. Steve Knight flashed mine with a J or earlier series ROM and although my car started on the dyno, it wont go.

That is not what I found out. Steve Knight flashed mine with a J or earlier series ROM and although my car started on the dyno, it wont go.
There definitely are ECU code and harness differences between the J and L/W ECUs, so your experience doesn't surprise me. The actual fuel and ignition timing maps are the same however.